After leaving Guns N'Roses, SLASH wasn't sure if the departure would
be short term, long term or permanent. A lot would depend on the mood
of Axl Rose and what he might offer his lead guitarist to return (if
indeed he were to offer anything). SLASH always has to be busy, so he
formed yet another new band. This band would go out on short tours and
play cover songs, so they could be busy right away.
The band SLASH started was called SLASH's Blues Ball, the same group that had
accompanied him to the Sziget Festival on Obuda Island in Budapest, Hungary in 1995.
They played before 206,000 visitors along with Iggy Pop, Sonic Youth, Stone
Roses, Prodigy and others. And they blew them all away! SLASH decided this
was going to be HIS band for the near future.
SLASH's Blues Ball was: SLASH on lead guitar,Teddy Andreadis on lead vocals,
harmonica, organ, Johnny Griparic on bass, Alvino Bennet on drums, Bobby
Schneck on rhythm guitar, and Dave McClarem on sax. Teddy Andreadis may be
familiar for his showstopping harp work on the GNR Illusions tour and on the
Believe in Me tour with Duff McKagan. A very talented musician!

The band did blues cover songs such as
Stone Free, Hootchie Cootchie Man, Suspicious, etc. Covering Snakepit songs
and the Dylan song "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" are especially popular.
There was a short
East Coast tour, and one on the West Coast. Then Texas received some
attention along with Louisiana and Nevada. Some big cities in the Northeast
were next. Check the tour schedule to see where they performed and when.
But at all their gigs,
fans reported that SLASH and Blues Ball rocked the house,
and SLASH was great for
spending time with the fans before and after the show.

Despite some possible plans that SLASH talked about, SLASH's Blues Ball never released an
album. Lots of fans didn't get to shows that were distant. For those
fans who heard them and those who didn't, here are some audio clips from
Blues Ball's show at Tramp's in New York City on 12/5/97. There are
three songs each in wav format for you to listen to.

The first song clip is from "Hoochie Coochie Man"! Click on the small
SLASH picture below to download and play this clip:

The last Blues Ball clip from Tramp's in New York City is one of their
favorites, "Key to the Highway". All the clips came from a boot video
of the band, so there are some more songs that will added as time goes
on. For now, settle back and listen to our man SLASH do "Key to the
Highway" with his great band, Blues Ball! Click on the SLASH picture
below to download and play - this is wav format: